Dual Ethernet Connection Bridging

[DanWilkes92]

Hi, I have a 2 routers at home, both on different networks (both with an internet connection), i also have a small server running Windows Home Server 2012 which i use for file sharing and video streaming.

 

I want to find a way to connect the server to both networks simultaneously, so computers on both networks can have a wired connection to it (to make streaming easier). but i want both routers to keep their own internet connection.

 

I was thinking about buying a Dual port Gigabit NIC to put in the server, then connecting it to both routers and bridging the connections, just wandering if that would work or if there is an easier way.

 

Thanks. 

[Skiiwee29]

All you need to do is setup your router port for trunking on VLANs to allow both networks to connect. 

[brwainer]

Just connect the computer to both networks - don't bridge the ports together. Your computer will get an IP address on each network. The only thing that may be hard to control is which network the server defaults to when it needs to access the internet.

[DanWilkes92]

50 minutes ago, brwainer said:

Just connect the computer to both networks - don't bridge the ports together. Your computer will get an IP address on each network. The only thing that may be hard to control is which network the server defaults to when it needs to access the internet.

OK, so how could I control which network is default? i assume it would be a configuration in the server's network settings?

[brwainer]

Windows makes the decision based on the route weight. You can view and change route weights using the route command line program: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490991.aspx To change the route's weight, you change the "metric".

 

Note that even though this is a page from Windows XP, AFAIK it is still the only way to change ip routes even up through Windows 10. The last time I used it was in Server 2012 R2 Update, which is equivalent to Windows 8.1 Update 1.